Pyeongchang 2018 Olympic Winter Games

The Pyeongchang 2018 Olympic Winter Games were an international athletic competition held in Pyeongchang county, South Korea, from February 9 to 25, 2018. It was the 23rd occurrence of the Winter Olympic Games, the first Winter Games hosted by South Korea, and the second Olympic event hosted by the country, after the Seoul 1988 Summer Olympics.

North Korea participated in the event and marched with the South Korean contingent under a unified Korea banner (showing a silhouette of the peninsula) at the opening ceremonies. Norway topped the overall medal table with 39 medals. Norwegian cross-country skier Marit Bjørgen won 5 medals, becoming the most decorated Winter Olympian to date.

Bidding and host selection

South Korea had two unsuccessful bids to host previous Winter Olympics, with Pyeongchang being the runner-up to Vancouver for the 2010 Games and Sochi, Russia, for the 2014 Games.

Three cities were in the final running to host the 2018 Winter Olympics: Pyeongchang, Munich, and Annecy, France. The final decision was made at a session of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) in Durban, South Africa, in July 2011. The Pyeongchang bid used the motto “New Horizons,” in reference to the benefits of promoting winter sports in Asia, and South Korean figure skating champion and former Olympic medalist Kim Yuna was the face the effort. Since its earlier failed bids, South Korea had also invested heavily in developing winter sports in the country, both in terms of infrastructure and talent.

The final vote, which involved 95 delegates and required the winner to secure a minimum of 48 votes, lasted only one round, as Pyeongchang won 63 votes. Munich won 25 votes, and Annecy came in third with 7 votes. Pyeongchang thus became the third Asian location to host the Winter Olympics, after Japan hosted Sapporo in 1972 and Nagano in 1998.

Venues and organization

The 2018 Games took place across 13 venues, mostly in Pyeongchang county, Gangwon province. Seven venues were existing facilities that had been built for the 1999 Asian Winter Games. Most competitions were held in two major clusters: the Alpensia Resort for Nordic skiing and sliding (bobsled, luge, and skeleton) events, and the Coastal Olympic Park, in the town of Gangneung, for curling, skating, and ice hockey events. Alpine skiing and snowboarding competitions took place in other standalone locations, including one in neighboring Jeongseon county.

The Pyeongchang Olympic Stadium, built in Gangneung at a cost of about $109 million, was designed to be a temporary building. After the Games concluded, an Olympic museum was built on the site.

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Following tradition, the Olympic torch was lit in Olympia, Greece, and subsequently landed in Incheon, South Korea, before being passed through the country in a 100-day relay across its cities and provinces. The torch, fabricated from a design by Korean Young Se Kim, was 700 mm (about 27.5 inches) in length, as a nod to Pyeongchang county’s average altitude of 700 meters (about 3,000 feet) above sea level. The medals were designed by South Korean artist Lee Suk-woo and included characters from Hangul, the alphabetic system used for writing the Korean language. The medal ribbons were created using gapsa, a traditional Korean fabric.

The mascot for the 2018 Games was a white tiger named Soohorang. In Korean, sooho means “protection,” and rang is derived from ho-rang-i, the Korean word for “tiger.” The white tiger is considered South Korea’s guardian animal and thus was meant to be a protector of athletes and spectators at the Olympic Games.

Competition and results

The 2018 Games featured 102 events across 15 Olympic winter sports. Four new events were added: men’s and women’s snowboard big air, mixed doubles curling, men’s and women’s speed skating mass start, and mixed team Alpine skiing. Ninety-two Olympic committees sent more than 2,900 athletes to the Games, and 30 countries won at least one medal. Six countries—Ecuador, Eritrea, Kosovo, Malaysia, Nigeria, and Singapore—made their Winter Games debut at Pyeongchang.

In December 2017 the IOC announced that the Russian Olympic Committee would be suspended from the Pyeongchang Games because it was found to have flouted anti-doping procedures at the 2014 Sochi Games. However, Russian athletes who qualified for individual events and passed doping screenings were allowed to compete in 2018 under the name Olympic Athlete from Russia (OAR) and used the Olympic flag as their symbol and the Olympic anthem during medal ceremonies.

In a symbolic peace gesture, South Korea welcomed North Korean athletes for the event. North Korea sent a contingent of athletes, along with a cheering squad and a performance-art troupe, to the Games. The two countries marched together under a unified Korea flag at the opening ceremony and fielded a joint team in the women’s ice hockey event.

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The standout performer at the Games was Norwegian cross-country skier Marit Bjørgen, who won a total of 5 medals, including 2 golds, 1 silver, and 2 bronzes. Bjørgen’s overall medal tally of 15 medals after Pyeongchang made her the most decorated Winter Olympian of all time. Biathlete Martin Fourcade of France and cross-country skier Johannes Høsflot Klæbo of Norway were the only athletes to win 3 gold medals. Alpine skier Marcel Hirscher of Austria and short-track speed skater Choi Minjeong of South Korea won 2 gold medals each. Dutch speed skater Ireen Wüst won a gold medal in the 1,500 meters, becoming the first athlete to medal in the same event at four consecutive Games (she placed third in 2006, first in 2010, and second in 2014). Canadian ice dancers Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir became the figure skaters with the most medals in Olympic history (5 each) when they won gold in the ice dance and team events.

Norway topped the overall medal table with 14 gold, 14 silver, and 11 bronze medals for a total of 39. Germany and Canada won a total of 31 and 29 medals each, which included 14 and 11 golds, respectively.

Participation of North Korea

The proximity of the Games to North Korea (Gangwon province is in the northeast corner of South Korea and borders North Korea) led to international concerns over security at the event. These were heightened after North Korea conducted a series of missile tests in 2017. Several countries, including Germany, France, and Austria, floated the possibility of skipping the Games because of the security concerns, but all three ultimately participated. No security issues arose during the course of the Games, which were marked by symbolic gestures of reconciliation, including South Korean Pres. Moon Jae-In shaking hands and spending time with Kim Yo-Jong, sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un.

There was some domestic South Korean dissent relating to the inclusion of North Korea. When the unified ice hockey team was announced, some South Korean coaches and fans protested, arguing that quickly integrating the new players would reduce the odds of the team winning a medal in the event (the combined team placed last). In addition, North Korea’s choice of Gen. Kim Yong-Chol to lead the country’s delegation at the closing ceremonies proved controversial. Kim was serving as a high-level intelligence official in 2010 when a North Korean torpedo attack on the South Korean warship Cheonan killed 46 seamen. South Korea had accused Kim of orchestrating the assault.